The months of hard work paid off and St Paul’s senior students once again delivered an outstanding community gala event.

It was two years ago when St Paul's hosted its inaugural school gala, an event led by the school’s students with support from the Parents’ Association. This year an enthusiastic group of prefects took up the challenge to organise a 2018 gala to raise money for the school's community service initiatives.

The public event held on Friday 14 September saw many local families and children enjoy the amazing food, the quality entertainment and the fun activities on offer. The students made and sold 300 crepes, 500 hot dogs, 300 servings of tacos, 300 servings of torrejas, 1000 servings of chips, 500 sausages, 200 toffee apples, 500 servings of chicken curry and 500 servings of candy floss. The most popular activities were face painting closely followed by the sponge throwing activity and the coconut shy stall.

We are so grateful to the following organisations who assisted us financially to reach our fundraising goal and provided sponsorship for the event. Thank you.

NZ Carbon Farming, Rototuna New World, Waitomo Adventures, Hobbs Transport, Fonterra, Waipa Plumbing and Gas, GJ Gardner Homes, Tims family, David’s Emporium, Independent Cattle Brokers – Marcus Paterson, Whitianga New World, McDonalds Hamilton, Bayleys Real Estate - Nicky Robb, Stokes family, Derry family, Thomas family, Lester family and all those families who gave so generously to our Monster Garage Sale - thank you!

During the process of delivering this event, the organising committee acquired a whole load of new skills which included: directing, peer managing, sorting, coordinating, corporate letter writing, fundraising, event managing and more. But the biggest part of that Friday afternoon, for which these students should be proud, were the smiles on the faces of many young children and their families from our neighbourhood who attended and participated in the Gala, all while raising close to $10,000 for three worthy causes. There have been many teachers, parents and attendees who have made themselves known to the Headmaster to say how fantastic the event was.

The following students, who formed the Gala committee, should be very proud of their achievement: Genevieve Scott-Jones, Siobhan Read, Cameron Coull, Samuel McClay, Heath Johnson and Harry Forte. They were ably mentored and widely supported by Mrs Michelle Smith and Ms Dorothy Carr Paterson. St Paul’s Collegiate School are very grateful to this group and to all those who joined us on the day to celebrate the diverse community in which we operate.